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Instagram is the hot app on the block these days. It captures the amazing images we are all able to take with our smart phones these days. Instagram can, also, be a powerful marketing tool for your business or vocation. So, how do you post Instagram photos directly to Facebook? You begin by launching the Instagram app from the home screen of your phone. On Android phones open your profile and tap on the three-dot menu icon. On IPhones from Profile tap on settings in the top right corner. Then,select linked accounts>Facebook>Share To. As a Facebook page manager, you can select your preferred page to default any future Instagram sharing on Facebook to that particular page.

Instagram Shares Improve Your Facebook Page

Instagram is owned by Facebook, which means it is very happy to share and play ball with Facebook. This platform has been kicking more goals in terms of audience engagement than Facebook has been for some time. Studies have shown that Instagram has the highest rate of engagement out of all the social networks. Instagram photos are of a higher quality, generally, than images are on Facebook, so, you will be boosting the quality factor there. Instagram has a more spontaneous reputation, which means that your posts will be fresher and viewed as more genuine by cross posting.

The Immediacy of Instagram Shines Through

The immediacy of Instagram helps contribute more content to your Facebook page, which can feel a bit like your sex life in the autumn years. Keeping the flow of content happening on your social media accounts is vital to maintaining their effectiveness. Establishing a social media page on a platform is akin to having a pet – you need to feed it every day. A social media guru friend of mine, said of Instagram, “it focuses your mind on producing content and trains you in visually expressing your business online.” The internet is primarily a visual medium, a picture tells a thousand stories kind of thing.

It’s All About the Photo Stupid

It is important to remember that Instagram’s roots are in mobile phone photography. It’s all about the photo stupid! This cool social media networking app is made for sharing photos and videos. The captions are pretty important too. Applying filters to your Instagram posts is, now, an essential part of the whole Instagram schtick.There are some 23 filters available to choose from via the edit option at the bottom of the photo editor.

Good luck with posting your Instagram photos directly to Facebook and happy Instagramming.

Media reports indicate that Facebook and Instagram are about to implement time limit provisions for users on their platforms. These new tools will allow users to manage their time by setting time limits on their scrolling behaviour. Previously, and in a similar vein to casinos banning clocks from their facilities, users were unaware of time’s ticking nature during their social media forays. Disappearing into the digital realm was a common Alice down the rabbit hole experience for many users of Facebook and Instagram. Parents have contacted police thinking their children have been abducted, when they were merely locked in bedrooms on social media. Wives and husbands have filed for divorce citing spousal neglect. Too many, once normal, folk have been lost to a computer-based obsessive lifestyle. Now, scrolling limits hit users of Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook Forced to Change

Facebook dropped $US 119 billion last week in their share value. Mark Zuckerberg has faced congressional enquiries and the approbation of the world’s media in recent months. Fake news is never far from the lips of the president. Russian bots have belittled the reputation of the world’s so-called ‘greatest democracy’. Facebook has been forced to change by these building dark clouds on its horizon. The mental health of its estimated 2.23 billion global users of the platform has suddenly become an important issue for Zuckerberg and his managerial team. Sedentary lifestyles are physically killing us and time spent on Facebook and Instagram is a substantial part of this growing health epidemic.

Poor Mental Health Outcomes

Poor mental health is a consequence of poor physical health. Lack of exercise is a major contributor to depression globally. Whether allowing people to set time limits on their scrolling behaviour will save the planet is highly unlikely in this writer’s view. Hopefully, there are positive signs that future generations are tiring of the allure of this platform. Social media platforms like Facebook appeal to many as a simplified way of interacting with life. They are like board games, where the complexity of existence is reduced down to a superficial set of behaviours. These do not demand any sacrifice or any real commitment of any kind. Identities are fraudulently created and manipulated to mimic signs of real life. Friends and followers are bought and sold cheaply, unlike garnering real friends or followers. Likes are flashed up in a head spinning haze of insincerity. Living Life According to the Rules of Facebook is the title of my coming book.

Will the new Nine Ate Fairfax entity be able to stand up to Facebook for longer than the scrolling limits on my Facebook page? Join me on my next outing here to find out what is likely to happen.

The ABC reports that the tiny town of Texas, Queensland has become home to hundreds of Facebook fake identities. Speculating that it is all due to auto-suggestion protocols online, when users are setting up a fake profile on Facebook, it appears that the Aussie town comes up as a third option for places in Texas. Many of these fake identities are involved in pro- President Trump postings on Facebook. Texas, QLD only has a population of some 900 people, but boasts hundreds of profiles of US military personnel who claim to be from there. Facebook fakes fumble on Texas, Queensland.

Fake News Alive & Well on Facebook

Fake news is alive and well on Facebook. The ABC provided details of 218 of these fake profiles to Facebook and most of them were taken down within a few days. Since then, another batch of 19 has popped up, as new profiles of US military personnel from, you guessed it, Texas, QLD. It sounds like a poorly programmed bot or poorly educated folk employed, probably offshore, by unscrupulous social media manipulators, perhaps on behalf of Trump interests. It is not the locals in Texas, QLD, committing these fraudulent activities. The ABC identified pro-Trump interests, love site scammers, and get-rich-quick scammers, using these fake identities online for their nefarious activities.

Locals Unaware of the Ruse

If all these US military types, sexy women and successful investors did all live in this tiny town on the Dumaresq River in the southern parts of the Darling Downs, it would be a pretty happening place. The ABC pointed to the fact that Lee Kernaghan, apparently, put Texas on the map via his country music classic of the same name. The song’s lyrics stereotypically reveal that it is a one-horse town. Lester Dawson, the editor of the local newspaper, was unaware of the Facebook ruse and its links to his town, until informed by the ABC News reporter.

Social Media Replacing the Real World

Social media is rapidly replacing the real world for many folks around the globe and it is becoming increasingly important to view the online realm with a great deal of scepticism. It is also paramount that traditional media, like the ABC, continue to scrutinise platforms like Facebook and call them to account. Governments are failing to do this job, both here and in America. If Trump in the White House is, seemingly, making use of fake news for his own purposes, he may be the President who cried “wolf”, once too often.

I will raise my hand and identify myself, up front, as a passionate, life-long AFL supporter and fan. I struggle to get, even vaguely, excited about NRL’s State of Origin. Trying to understand the decisions of the referees in Rugby Union has me scratching more than my head. Soccer, in my opinion, lacks scoring and body contact. Basketball is one of those overhyped American sports, which is more mouth than action. AFL has it all: full body contact, speed, sublime skills, thrills and spills. It is the game for me, but, is too much media coverage killing the AFL?

Wall to Wall Opinion & Analysis

It seems like only yesterday, but was probably twenty plus years ago, when the footy was rarely on the TV, apart from the matches themselves. A Sunday morning review show on Channel 7 and 9, and that was about it. Now, AFL has its own dedicated channel on Fox, with wall to wall opinion and analysis. On the Couch, AFL 360, On the Mark, Bounce, Open Mike, The Beep Test, The Weekly Lowdown, Saturday Stretch, and Bob are all on Fox Footy. The Footy Show on 9 has been around forever. 7 has Talking Footy, The Front Bar and Gameday. I am sure that I have missed a number of shows on community stations and state-based programs as well.

If Something is Worth Saying, Say it Loudly

All of these programs are populated, in the main, by ex-AFL players as their talking heads, with a few savvy TV hosts thrown in for good measure. The gameday coverage itself on Channel 7 and on Fox contains around six or seven commentators and specialist boundary riders for each match. To say that the coverage is brimming with ‘so-called’ expert opinion is to do a disservice to the concepts of overflowing and capacity. Ex-Players like Dermott Brereton, Dwayne Russell and Brian Taylor believe in the principle that if something is worth saying it is worth saying loudly. Sports commentators of all persuasions, AFL, NRL, rugby and soccer, back the booming voice to silence any doubters. The question must be asked, however, do all these shouting sages contribute to make watching the game a better experience?

The Game is Lost in a Sea of Overhyped Opinions

In my view, the game is lost in a sea of overhyped opinions and platitudes. These blokes, and they are blokes in the main, are paid well to proffer their opinions. On this basis alone, I surmise that they feel the need to emphasise what they are saying on air. Pronouncing each syllable of every word with gusto, and in BT’s case stretching vowels and syllables like OR-AZ-IO FAN-TA-SIA for his own amusement. I must admit that I enjoy BT’s vocal histrionics, simply because they are so silly. The amount of hot air being generated by these sports commentators should be enough to power one of those failing coal powered stations around the nation.

The Coverage is Sucking the Oxygen Out of the Sherrin

There are concerns being raised about falling attendances for the AFL in Melbourne, its heartland. Plus, lower TV ratings for matches, when compared to the same time last year, have been recorded in 2018. Industry pundits and ‘so-called’ experts are confidently predicting major rule overhauls to combat congestion and lack of end to end scoring. These ex-players are singing from ‘the golden years’ song sheet, when high marking and free-flowing footy, apparently, graced our ovals. I, personally, reckon that memories like these are always washed in a rose-coloured glow and things were never quite as rosy as believed. I don’t think there is much wrong with the game itself, but the coverage is sucking the oxygen out of the Sherrin, right before our eyes.

Let the Game’s Natural Poetry Speak for Itself

Let the game’s natural poetry speak for itself and let’s put a sock in the mouth of overblown commentators like Anthony Hudson and Dwayne Russell. It was always a point of difference for me that AFL did not need the lungs and larynx of a Darrell Eastlake or Ray Warren to make our game infinitely watchable. I miss the measured punning of Dennis Cometti terribly. There are too many talking heads on the footy shows, with too few worthwhile things to say. There is a surfeit of faux analysis concerning gameday strategies, which must have the coaches rolling their eyebrows back, if not an extra man in defence. There are some good operators on TV, I like Matthew Richardson and Tim Watson, these are two examples of keen intelligences who don’t need to shout out their stuff to get their message across. Footy coverage, just needs some pruning to make it less of a talkfest and more of a spectacle once more.

Let’s not let Rupert Murdoch turn coverage of the AFL into a copy of the “American-style’ overblown NFL, where the media runs rampant like a gunman in a US school. Restraint is called for, now and into the future, in regard to the media. Too much media coverage is killing the AFL.

There are a lot of negative stories in the press about social media. At the forefront of these are reported acts of cyber bullying on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. When these involve children, it is especially worrying for parents and carers of kids in our community. There are, also, ‘so-called’ trolls out there in cyber land anonymously attacking people who are in the vanguard of our society, may they be celebrities, football stars or politicians. Social media provides a screen for those who wish to comment or pillory others without any real scrutiny of their actions. These failings, among others, are reported with relish by the mainstream media and social commentators. Social media saving lives, as a story, does not get much of a run.

The Internet Has Largely Undermined the Economic Foundation of Traditional Media

One thing needs to be remembered when assessing traditional media coverage. What is in it for the author or publisher? Everyone in this world is pushing their own wheel barrow. The Internet, and forms of it like social media, have largely undermined the economic foundation of newspapers, magazines, and to a lesser extent TV networks. Journalists have lost their jobs in the tens of thousands, all over the globe. You would not say that publishers, editors and journos are big fans of what the digital age has done to their professions and livelihoods. Their commentary and focus on the negative aspects of social media must be seen in light of this.

Social Media Campaign Fighting the Devastating Effects of Bush Fires in Australia

There are, however, many positive stories involving social media. Indeed, social media saving lives is not an uncommon occurrence. In Australia, during bush fire season, we regularly witness lives and homes being lost to the ravishes of fire. A social media campaign run for the NSW Rural Fire Service was able to double their communities on Facebook and Twitter, which allows them to inform their followers of dangers via these social media platforms during bush fire season. This means many more people being instantly informed of a bush fire’s status in relation to their own homes. More of these kinds of approaches, utilising the popularity of social media platforms like Facebook for crisis communication, have been taken by emergency services throughout Australia in recent years.

Social Media in the Management of Natural Disasters Globally

Social media in the management of natural disasters and in war zones has been highlighted globally in the last decade. Digital technology in the form of mobile phones and social media has been a life saver in many third world countries undergoing natural disasters and armed conflicts. In the Arab Spring in Egypt, parties from all sides utilised social media to communicate with their members and the world’s media. Social media is not some silver bullet in these terrible events and atrocities, but it is providing a platform for rapid mass communication during crises. Social media saving lives is definitely on the global agenda.

Social media for many older Australians has been a curiosity, at best, and a wait and see prospect for many in business. It is loudly trumpeted by large sections of the community and either praised or demonised at various times for its acuity. Some of us thought and hoped that it might fade away in time, but this looks increasingly unlikely. Younger Australians have embraced it, as they do most trends and novelties at that age. Belonging to a group or tribe seems to be an important element in adolescence and early adulthood. Social media is it now an essential part of life?

A Vital Component in the Marketing Arsenal

Businesses have been told that it is, now, a vital component in their marketing arsenal. That it is a space where conversations can happen between businesses and customers (I thought that was what the telephone was for). Announcements can be made by businesses. Feedback can be given by the deliriously happy and the disgruntled. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter have all provided platforms for this exchange of information and opinion. At times of course, these innocent stages have been gamed by nefarious agencies via bots and bought followings.

Facebook & Cambridge Analytica

Facebook has famously sold our data to scumbags in suits like Cambridge Analytica (how the dons at that august institute in the city of the same name must loathe this organisation). Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, disputes this data selling fact, telling Congress, that they place ads where advertisers want to reach specific demographics. Third-party apps can, however, gain access to this data, and this was how Cambridge Analytica got hold of it. Facebook lost control of yours and my data and it ended up in the hands of these political black hats. Have we put our trust in technology, naively?

Get Expert Advice Before You Take the Plunge

Social media is it now an essential part of life? It is definitely a two-edged sword, to use an old analogy, because a bundle of likes can feel good, but, similarly, a tidal wave of hate and complaints can, potentially, send you over the edge. Do not approach social media like Mr Smith going to Washington, get some expert advice before you take the plunge. It can be a slippery slope for the uninitiated. Businesses and individuals can get burnt before they know what is happening. Something seemingly innocuous can be akin to the terrors of the old school yard, when bullies and gangs were a part of life.

Some folks have ignored it and hoped that it would go away. Others embraced it from the start and have taken the journey from platform to platform and everything in-between. Social media it is more than a whisper on the wind, more than idle chatter in the classroom, and, yet, not quite the medium for a marriage proposal or denuclearisation treaty with North Korea. Here are some social media trends to take note of in 2018.

More Fake News & Fake Pictures

#FakeNews has been in the news, almost constantly, since #DonaldTrump entered the White House. Fake images will be ramping up their presence across social media, as the technology to do this becomes more available to more people. You can reverse image search using Google Images, if you suspect some digital fakery at play in your news feed. Fake pictures on Facebook, seem to have made their home there. The Russians perfected the Photoshop manipulation on social media platforms for the 2016 US election. It seems the same stupid people who used to watch TV are now on Facebook instead. Social media platforms lack gravitas, especially when it comes to the news. People are more willing to believe all sorts of whacky stuff over the internet. The internet seems to invite fraudulent behaviour in the same way that a few drinks in your local bar invites promiscuity. I don’t know what it exactly is that people believe the digital realm to be, but sacrosanct is not one of those beliefs.

Does Social Media Distort Our Reality?

Perhaps, social media is considered to be one mega celebrity supermarket magazine, where everything fake is celebrated. Air brushed images have made way for complete Photoshop overhauls. The idea that the whole world is armed with cameras via their smart phones and can record crimes and misdeeds for the benefit of humanity, tends to break down in the face of rampant misuse and manipulation of the technology. Through a glass darkly, or through a Samsung lens, the world is a different place. Social media is distorting our comprehension of reality by compartmentalising it into likes and followers. Your news feed is feeding you stuff designed to be easily digestible, whether it is true or not.

It’s Egalitarian & Personal

Traditional news, in newspapers and on TV’s current affairs type programs, has always exaggerated the shocking and the negative in a bid to sell newspapers and attract high ratings on the small screen. Social media has bucked that trend via its egalitarian nature and personal networks. It may be banal, and it usually is, and it is, of course, a far more visual medium with users more inclined to snap an image with a catchy title than penning an essay on any topic. Marketers want to make it a torchbearer for their brands, but it remains a communication device for members of communities.

If we can encourage a sense of social responsibility among users of the internet and social media, in particular, then, it may survive and thrive beyond sensationalism. If we don’t, it will quickly become an obsolete plaything for morons and degenerates. Twitter, some say, already is.

It is an undeniable reality that our children are growing up faster than ever before. Young children are introduced to their sexuality ahead of time, through things like fashion and the media. Technology is in the hands of 4 and 5-year olds, via TV and computer screens. The incessant digital world is all around our kids, blinking 24/7 on screens large and small. Pixels and bytes forming shapes, colours and sounds are telling stories and mirroring our lives in weird and wonderful ways. What about children on social media? Is never the best practice?

Social Media & Our Kids

Children think it would be wonderful to have lots of friends. Imagine if you could have more friends than you can fit in this room or this house. The more the merrier is their lovely and naïve conception of that reality. In truth, friends or acquaintances can turn on you at the slightest provocation in the realm of the digital world. Virtual forums on social media disguise the identities of their members. The internet is a fraudulent place, where who says what bears little resemblance to any forum in the flesh and blood real world. There are adults pretending to be children online. Sexual deviants pretending to be your caring friend. Criminals attempting to discover financial information about possible targets for their frauds.

Social Media is an Adult Conversation

Social media is an adult conversation. It is a free for all between consenting adults. It can be productive, and it can be very negative. It takes the qualities inherent within us all and magnifies those on a much larger scale. It turns micro into mega, intimate into a stadium experience. It involves uncommitted participants in an exchange of opinions. It takes a digital impression of what may or may not be a person and asks you to play along with the charade called social media networking. Children on social media: Never is best practice.

It is a sad case of affairs that human beings, whatever their age, are subject to destructive bullying and vitriol online. The internet is home to faceless cowards venting their bile over platforms like Twitter and other social media platforms. Social media safety: Are your teenagers safe on social media? The simple answer is no, unless they are as thick skinned as a rhinoceros. I do not suggest to parents that they blithely find out if their kids are tough enough, but rather, be vigilantly aware of what is going on in this virtual forum. This online playground, where the knocks can come unseen and with devastating force.

Adolescents on Social Media & the Dangers

Social media is intensely attractive to many teenagers, because it promises the allure of the attention of others and their approval. However, what can transpire is the exact opposite. Your teenager may suddenly face group ridicule and denigration, which can occur 24/7. The pack can turn on one of their own and rip all sense of self-esteem to shreds in that benighted individual. Most adolescents do not have the survival skills to cope with en masse bullying. Suicides are not uncommon in the resultant fallout from these online attacks.

Kids on Twitter & Facebook Can Suffer

Some in the community say that this a whole lot of rubbish and refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. Burying our heads in the sand. when it comes to acknowledging how human behaviour is amplified by technology, will not serve us well in the long term. The privacy lobby resists unpopular safety innovations, when it comes to things like the internet. Social media safety issues around teenagers are very real and demand solutions. Kids on Twitter and Facebook can suffer irreparable damage and be lost to us.

There are two sides to every franchise business. One, the franchisor promoting franchise opportunities to potential franchisees. Two, the franchisee promoting their branch to their customers and market. Social media can help achieve both these aims economically and effectively. Beginning firstly with the franchisor, there are enormous opportunities on the various social media platforms to reach potential franchisees. Social media is a conversation, it is a forum, a virtual place where you can express ideas and opportunities. You can receive feedback from interested parties on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest, to name the main players in the game. Promoting franchise businesses using social media makes a lot of sense.

Franchise Businesses Can Market Via Social Media

A franchise business that’s appealing as family-friendly will have great drawing power for potential franchisees. So many new franchisees are attracted to owning businesses which provide family life/work balance. Many of them have exited the corporate world because of its heavy daily and hourly demands upon its workers. It may pay well, but it puts a strain on personal and family lives. To become your own boss and work your own hours is a very appealing factor in becoming a franchisee. Social media can promote this feature to prospective franchisees.

Social Media Can Supercharge Franchise Opportunities

Deft social media management can promote your franchise business to a market and community ripe for opportunities. The Internet allows you to reach a large audience of interested parties; if you are presenting the right content on social media and managing it adeptly, the world is your oyster. The growing interest in food businesses such as catering, is one prime example of social media’s ability to attract new customers and to tell customers about your franchise. You can find out what customers think about your business. Market research is rife on Facebook and other platforms.

Social Media Management is Essential

Once you have your own franchise branch, you want to promote your own particular outlet to your market, and social media is ideal for that. Geographical locations, combined with your franchise brand name, will target the customers in your locale. Social media management is essential for promoting businesses via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. It takes a daily commitment to posting and responding to your followers, if you are to make your social media a real winner for your franchise business. You can build stronger relationships with all the stake holders in your business through this medium.

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